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Confucius Says...

To guide a land of a thousand chariots, honor business and be true; spend little and love men; time thy calls on the people.

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The young should be dutiful at home, modest abroad, careful and true, overflowing in kindness for all, but in brotherhood with love. And if they have strength to spare they should spend it on the arts.

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A gentleman will not be looked up to unless he is staid, nor will his learning be sound. Put faithfulness and truth first; have no friends unlike thyself; be not ashamed to mend thy faults.

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Whilst thy father lives look for his purpose; when he is gone, look how he walked. To change nothing in thy father's ways for three years may be called pious.

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A gentleman that does not seek to eat his fill, nor look for ease in his home, who is earnest at work and careful of speech, who walks with those that keep the Way, and is guided by them, may be said to love learning.

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Not to be known is no sorrow. My sorrow is not knowing men.

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He that rules by mind is like the north star, steady in his seat, whilst the stars all bend to him.

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The three hundred poems are summed up in the one line, Think no evil.

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Guide the people by law, aline them by punishment; they may shun crime, but they will want shame. Guide them by mind, aline them by courtesy; they will learn shame and grow good.

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At fifteen, I had the will to learn; at thirty, I could stand; at forty, I had no doubts; at fifty, I understood the heavenly Bidding; at sixty, my ears were opened; at seventy, I could do as my heart lusted without trespassing from the square.

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He that can feed his parents is now called a good son. But both dogs and horses are fed, and unless we honour our parents, what is the difference?

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To keep old knowledge warm and get new makes the teacher.

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Learning without thought is naught; thought without learning is dangerous.

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To know what we know, and know what we do not know, is wisdom.

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A man without love, what is courtesy to him? A man without love, what is music to him?

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A big question! At high-tides, thrift is better than waste; at burials, grief is worth more than nicety.

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Love makes a spot beautiful: who chooses not to dwell in love, has he got wisdom?

A holy man I shall not live to see; enough could I find a gentleman! A good man I shall not live to see; enough could I find a steadfast one! But when nothing poses as something, cloud as substance and want as riches, it is hard indeed to be steadfast!

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There may be men that do things without knowing why. I do not. To hear much, pick out the good and follow it; to see much and think it over; this comes next to wisdom.

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How dare I lay claim to holiness or love? A man of endless craving, who never tires of teaching, I might be called, but that is all.

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A gentleman is calm and spacious; the small man is always fretting.

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Other Chinese Proverbs

Worldly fame and pleasure are destructive to the virtue of the mind; anxious thoughts and apprehensions are injurious to the health of the body.

- Chinese Proverb

In learning, age and youth go for nothing; the best informed take the precedence.

- Chinese Proverb

Unsullied poverty is always happy, while impure wealth brings with it many sorrows.

- Chinese Proverb

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

- Chinese Proverb

Good fortune is a benefit to the wise, but a curse to the foolish.

- Chinese Proverb

A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.

- Chinese Proverb

The best thing is to be respected, the next, is to be loved; it is bad to be hated, but still worse to be despised.

- Chinese Proverb

A foolish husband fears his wife; a prudent wife obeys her husband.

- Chinese Proverb

A vacant mind is open to all suggestions, as the hollow mountain returns all sounds.

- Chinese Proverb

By nature all men are alike, but by education very different.

- Chinese Proverb

He who toils with pain will eat with pleasure.

- Chinese Proverb

The fame of good men’s actions seldom goes beyond their own doors, but their evil deeds are carried a thousand miles’ distance.

- Chinese Proverb

The doctrine that enters only into the ear is like the repast one takes in a dream.

- Chinese Proverb

Do not anxiously expect what is not yet come; do not vainly regret what is already past.

- Chinese Proverb

Do not consider any vice as trivial, and therefore practise it; do not consider any virtue as unimportant, and therefore neglect it.

- Chinese Proverb

It is not easy to stop the fire when the water is at a distance; friends at hand are better than relations afar off.

- Chinese Proverb

When the man of a naturally good propensity has much wealth it injures his advancement in wisdom; when a worthless man has much wealth it increases his faults.

- Chinese Proverb

The man of worth is really great without being proud; the mean man is proud without being really great.

- Chinese Proverb

Let every man sweep the snow from before his own doors, and not busy himself about the frost on his neighbour’s tiles.

- Chinese Proverb

Modesty is attended with profit, arrogance brings on destruction.

- Chinese Proverb

Those who cause dissensions in order to injure other people are preparing pitfalls for their own ruin.

- Chinese Proverb

The man of first rate excellence is virtuous in spite of instruction; he of the middle class is so after instruction; the lowest order of men are vicious in spite of instruction.